


Dawn at le Portel

by lynndyre



Category: The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 13:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17788043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynndyre/pseuds/lynndyre
Summary: From the end of Eldorado, a reunion at the culmination of their escape.





	Dawn at le Portel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spellboundreader316](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spellboundreader316/gifts).



Night was in its final hour as the carriage reached the outermost buildings of le Portel. As the first hint of dawn crept above the horizon, the Day-Dream set down her little boat into the water. Percy watched until his wife, and then her errant brother were drawn safely onboard the yacht, then turned his feet towards the street where he hoped to find the last of his men.

Further from the port, the city was beginning to stir. He stepped well clear of an unlatching window-shutter, turned down one alley between low buildings, crossed an intersection just as a rooster crowed in the distance. When he reached his target, he did so from the rear, circling to the kitchen entrance. He slipped inside, pulling the door to without allowing the latch to click, and paused, listening. But this was no arranged meeting, and the object of it far more trustworthy than some he had encountered of late. Slowly, he let his stance relax. 

The soft call of a nightbird was met with a clatter of footsteps as Sir Andrew appeared on the stair in his shirtsleeves, neckcloth in hand. That fiercest and best of lieutenants had sufficient mastery of himself to restrain any loud exclamation, and only a low "Percy! How—," had escaped his lips before he had bounded down the remaining steps and embraced his friend.

For all his trust in every capability of his leader, Andrew knew- had always known- that this little amusement, this more-than-game of their rich young set could end in horror, and he had felt the breeze of that sharp ending come oh so close this time. Percy's answering grip was bruising tight, for there was tension singing still in all his sinews, and beneath that living energy Andrew felt the depletion of his frame.

"My God, Percy. You made it."

"We made it."

Andrew draped the neckcloth around his neck and made a hasty knot, but Percy swept his hands out of the way, reworking it to his own standards of disguise. Andrew's amused quiescence was a balm it its utter familiarity. He used the time to make his report. "The Dauphin is safe across the border, and every one of the League clear of French soil."

"All save yourself?"

"All save myself. I should have set out again in a few hours. I was to rendezvous with Lady Blakeney."

"I am glad to find you still here, I've had enough of riding about the countryside these last days! No, Marguerite and Armand came here with me, and I have sent them onboard. You are the last, my friend. The tale of it all will wait- the tide will not." And there a shadow crossed his face, the bank of cloud that hides a storm. "But one thing you must know, though I require your silence on it There was no accident, Andrew. No mistake."

For a moment Sir Andrew could only stare, the full measure of that betrayal twisted, sickening, below his heart.

"He has done his best to atone, and once in England he will remain there. But I will not have Margot know- "

"No." Andrew paused, hand on Percy's arm. "No, I understand." And perhaps he did. Or perhaps he simply understood that Percy needed it so. 

They closed the safehouse door behind them. Dawn was fully broken now, the morning claiming thoughtless innocence of past cares. At the docks a grey-striped cat, replete with the discarded guts of the day's catch, followed them down the pier. 

Sir Andrew kept one eye on his friend. Percy stood still straight, still strong, but the growing light showed the sharpened bones of his cheeks, the deep purple that marked his eyes, heavy lidded not with fashionable ennui but with true exhaustion. That burst of strength which had sustained him through the night was waning fast. For some twenty days the will had commanded the body. Now, finally assured of triumph, and with all those under his care brought to safety, the body, animal-like in its ultimate demands, was beginning to overrule that great mind.

Percy rubbed at his eyes as the Day Dream's boat, having spotted them, made for the pier once more. When he dropped his hand, he swayed, and Andrew caught his elbow, moved full into the shadow of his body.

By the time they reach the Day Dream's ladder, Percy was near sleeping on Andrew's shoulder, huge frame less heavy than it should have been. "You will see to things?" He raised his hand against Andrew's answer, that mobile mouth twisting upwards. "Of course you will. Demmed reliable of you." 

Andrew handed him up into Marguerite's reaching arms with a smile.


End file.
